{"id":5134,"date":"2012-05-11T04:00:42","date_gmt":"2012-05-11T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?p=5134"},"modified":"2012-05-16T12:29:51","modified_gmt":"2012-05-16T19:29:51","slug":"artist-entrepreneur-k-for-kickstarter-the-artists-alphabet-guide-to-writing-about-your-art-by-aletta-de-wal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/11\/artist-entrepreneur-k-for-kickstarter-the-artists-alphabet-guide-to-writing-about-your-art-by-aletta-de-wal\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Entrepreneur: K for Kickstarter — The Artist\u2019s Alphabet Guide to Writing About Your Art by Aletta de Wal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Welcome to\u00a0Artist Entrepreneur Fridays<\/strong><\/span>, where we talk about the fun, wild and scary ride of succeeding as an artist entrepreneur of all stripes and types and mediums.<\/p>\n

Welcome back guest columnist, Aletta de Wal.<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0She specializes in helping visual artists succeed in their fine art careers in any economy. She\u2019s posting regularly on \u201cThe Artist\u2019s Alphabet Guide to Writing About Your Art\u201d and other success tips for fine artists around writing. This week it\u2019s about\u00a0using\u00a0Kickstarter to fund your art projects. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 ***<\/p>\n

Kickstarter<\/a> is the entrepreneurial artist\u2019s equivalent of venture capitalists<\/strong>, only better.\u00a0 Their tagline, \u201cA new way to fund & follow creativity,\u201d describes crowd-sourcing money and encouragement through \u201ca unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kickstarter differs from a charitable organization or fund for general business support because applicants seek funds for a specific creative project. You can get the overall picture in their FAQs here: http:\/\/budurl.com\/KickstarterFAQ\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

I first learned about Kickstarter when I read a blog post by my colleague John Unger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I sent a ‘cease and desist’ letter to someone over my firebowls. We did have formal copyright but [the person who copied the bowls] sued me in court to have the copyright overturned. Eventually we settled out of court and I did get them to stop. I didn’t get any legal fees or damages; I paid out of pocket, mostly out of a fundraiser on Kickstarter. If it had not been for the Internet I would have literally been bankrupted, ruined and actually be homeless now. While it’s an uncommon situation, by the other party bringing suit first, if I did not counter sue, by default the other party would have won and taken everything I owned. Challenging the suit ended up costing me everything I had. In the end, we won, but it cost us a little over $60,000 to get back to where we started.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve long been an advocate of artists copyrighting their art, but this was the first time I\u2019d learned of an actual suit. Of course I donated and spread the word. This was my first exposure to Kickstarter and I loved the way the platform allowed John to appeal to his community and how each one of us could provide a contribution to his legal fees and emotional bank.<\/p>\n

You don’t need dire circumstances or a huge project to use Kickstarter. Bay area painter Zannah Noe launched her project American Bones<\/a> and raised $3,910 through donations by 50 backers.<\/p>\n

Before you jump into submitting your own worthy project to Kickstarter, make a few notes about the following:<\/p>\n